Europa League final - Arsenal vs Chelsea: Arsene Wenger joins criticism of Uefa over Henrikh Mkhitaryan’s Baku decision
Former Arsenal manager believes ‘it is not normal’ to give a European final where certain players cannot travel to due to political reasons
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Your support makes all the difference.Arsene Wenger believes Uefa’s plans for the 2019 Europa League final in Baku are a “nightmare” for Arsenal and Chelsea fans, with the former manager criticising the governing body for selecting a host city that has triggered the controversy around Henrikh Mkhitaryan’s decision not to play.
The Armenia international will not travel to Baku with the rest of the squad due to his county’s ongoing conflict with Azerbaijan, while Armenian Arsenal and Chelsea supporters have also been denied visas to enter the country for next Wednesday’s final.
It has triggered a furious backlash against Uefa for allowing the situation to arise by awarding the final to Baku, while the problems with actually travelling to Azerbaijan have not just been restricted to the Arsenal midfielder. Fans are having to shell out hundreds – if not thousands – to get to Baku, with both clubs each returning around half their miserly allocation of 6,000 match tickets due to the difficulty that supporters are having in getting there.
It means that the 69,870-capacity Olympic Stadium is likely to be around half empty for the final, and Wenger believes Uefa are to blame for the situation being allowed to arise.
"That's something that should not happen in football, in the modern world, that politically you cannot play a football game," Wenger said of Mkhitaryan.
"I feel it's not normal that in 2019 - inside Europe, with very sophisticated democracies - that you cannot play for political reasons.
"It's a little bit of a nightmare. It's the same for both teams, always. A final is a final. I don't think it will affect them.
"The teams do not have such a problem, they live in ideal conditions, they have a private jet, they have nice business seats. It's the fans."
Wenger also addressed the resurgence of Premier League football in Europe, with his former rivals Tottenham and Liverpool reaching the Champions League final to go along with the all-English Europa League clash.
Despite admitting that the Premier League clubs are now being rewarded for their “quality work”, the Frenchman did stress that the normal process of league cycles in Europe was taking place due to a number of the previous dominant squads allowing their average age to increase.
"Many teams who were dominant forces in Europe before - Real Madrid, Barcelona, Bayern Munich, Juventus - have collapsed," said Wenger. "Paris St-Germain had a good opportunity to win the Champions League this year and (there has been an) over-ageing of the other dominant forces.
"They have to renew their teams. The players who used to make the difference are a bit overage now.
"That's why we will have a very, very interesting transfer market this summer."
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